You don’t need to be an expert in the field of golf psychology to know that we always seem to get what we focus on – unconsciously. This means that whether we are focusing on what we DO want or what we DON’T want, we’ll get it! “Trying” to picture your shot is not enough, if under pressure a worry about “what if” creeps in. When it comes to the critical moments in competition, the player with the most single minded mental golf game will ALWAYS win. So often we see great players with poor golf psychology crumble at times like this – from Doug Sanders and Scott Hoch missing those famous tiddlers, to Kenny Perry gifting the Masters to Angel Cabrera.

If you want to get nervous, focus on what you don’t want to happen and feel all of the bad feelings it would bring! If, like most people, you don’t want to do that any more, develop new self belief by using different unconscious strategies. My preference is to make this switch in pictures automatic, so that whenever you find yourself focusing on what you don’t want, it automatically gets replaced with one that you do want, WITHOUT you thinking. This means that when you play, you can simply enjoy playing single minded golf.

I recently used the following process with a pro who was struggling with his confidence when chipping. We played afterwards to test it out and he said he had not chipped that well for 8 years! I will now take you through the exact same process to help you install these mental golf tips for yourself.

For these changes in golf psychology to work, and to stick, you need to follow every step and find a way of making them work for you. Then, this process becomes more than mental golf tips, it becomes a natural process for you. So…

1. Find the specific moment your nerves get triggered - ie how you know it’s time to get nervous. For example, looking down on a certain length of putt, placing the club behind the ball on the first tee, etc.
2. Imagine standing over this shot now, feeling nervous and worrying about missing your target. We’ll call this scenario your old picture.
3. Now, clear your internal screen and imagine you are looking down at the same shot, but this time you’re totally focused on the target and feeling 100% confident about hitting the ball there. We’ll call this your new picture.
4. Now, bring up the old picture again. Now, just as quickly as you can, fire it off into the distance so it becomes small, blurry and dark, taking all of the nerves with it, and now snap back in the new picture big, bright and clear so that all of the focus and 100% confidence comes flooding into you
5. Clear your screen
6. Again bring up the old picture. Again, fire it off into the distance, taking away all of the nerves and have the new picture come in super fast, filling you with confidence and focus so you know you’ll make it
7. Clear the screen. The faster you can keep repeating this process the better – the unconscious mind loves fast clear instruction. So again, old picture, fire off, new picture comes in, confident focus
8. Again, old picture, fire off, new picture comes in, confident focus.
9. Again, old picture, fire off, new picture comes in, confident focus
10. And once more to seal it in, fire off the old picture, snap in the new one, confident focus
11. Now let’s test – bring up the old picture and notice what happens. Does it get automatically replaced with the new one? If it does, perfect. If not yet, you might simply be finding it harder to get the old picture back. To make it fully automatic, just keep repeating the process until the switch becomes automatic. Once it is, move on step 12.
12. Now that the new picture comes in automatically, just go out into the future to a time when you’ll be faced with similar pressure and notice how differently you feel. Really test out that trigger now in other situations too until you know you’ve made the change stick.

By following these mental golf tips and processes, you are getting yourself 100% ready to commit to the shot you want. The more these mental golf tips become part of your natural routine, the more single minded your golf psychology will become and the better your scores.

I love feedback, so once you’ve had a chance to test this out under pressure, let me know how things are different in your golf psychology and your game. Also, to receive free audio tipcasts on the mental game, sign up for my free newsletter now.

Love every shot!

Adam Sprackling

Mental Golf Coach